MICA President Fred Lazarus IV Named Marylander of the Year Finalist; Wins Online Poll

President Lazarus considered for Marylander of the Year two years in a row

Posted 12.31.13 by MICA Communications

Along with four other distinguished Maryland residents, Baltimore Sun named Fred Lazarus IV a finalist for the 2013 Marylander of the Year. The public was invited to help influence the Sun's final decision, resulting in an outpouring of support for the MICA president. As the paper closed the online polling, Lazarus topped the voting with 7,634 votes. He was followed by Tatyana McFadden, the paralympic athlete from Atholton, MD who became the first person to win four major marathons in a calendar year (7,166 votes); Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank (1,823 votes); Johns Hopkins professor Daniel Webster, whose research buttressed new Maryland gun control laws (1,000 votes); and retiring NAACP President Ben Jealous (957 votes), who was ultimately selected by the paper.

This year's consideration marked the second for President Lazarus, who received an honorable mention in 2012's selection. In naming Lazarus a finalist, the Sun referenced his leadership in moving the College from an institution "far removed from the cutting edge of art and design" to one "with global reach offering state-of-the-art instruction and an avant garde mentality." Calling him a "pioneer" and a "model," the paper also highlighted Lazarus' role in helping transform Baltimore over the last 35 years and the work that MICA students, professors, and graduates have done to revitalize a part of town "that might have been given up for lost."

The Sun's Marylander of the Year 2013 finalists story can be found here.

More information about events planned to honor the legacy of President Lazarus can be found here.

Read more about President Lazarus' first days as MICA president in the January-February edition of Juxtapositions here.